


The Daedalus Divergence

by Violet_Frost



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daedalus Variations, Episode: s05e04 The Daedalus Variations, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:06:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23446732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_Frost/pseuds/Violet_Frost
Summary: This story is about the origin and journey of the reality-hopping Daedalus (as seen in The Daedalus Variations) and its original crew. It is primarily set in Atlantis and aboard Daedalus, but starts out on Earth and features a lot of SGC personnel.The divergence between the prime reality (the TV show) and the alpha reality (this one) can be traced back to P3R-233, the world with the quantum mirror in There But For the Grace of God, which is also where the prime SGC found the Ancient communications stone that O'Neill touched in Daniel Jackson's office (as seen in Citizen Joe). In the alpha reality, no communications stone had been left behind on P3R-233, and so the events of Citizen Joe never happened, and the ancient communications terminal found in Avalon (which needed communications stones to function) was something of a mystery...(I'm going to try to post a chapter every month on the 1st, but it's possible it may take longer since I'm something of a perfectionist and edit and re-edit repeatedly.)
Relationships: Jennifer Keller/Jennifer Hailey
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. What's Past is Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter consists of a number of relatively short vignettes as we see the differences between the prime reality and this one begin to build up.
> 
> (There's no romance and nobody dies in this chapter; that all happens later in the story)

* * *

#### 

The SGC - Landry's Office - July 22, 2005

Dr. Lee knocked on General Landry's open office door. 

"Come on in, Doctor," said the General. "Have you made any progress figuring out the purpose of the device?"

"Well, sir," began Dr. Lee, clearing his throat, "although we're certain that it's a communications device, well... We haven't figured out how it works or how to turn it on. Our best guess is that something - we don't know what - slots into the teardrop-shaped indentations on the side. SG-1 has handled some Asgard and Tok'ra devices that might fit - maybe. Their shapes may just be coincidence, with the shape of hands and being designed for holding and - though, Asgard have tiny hands so maybe not -"

General Landry held up his hand. "Relax, Doctor. I don't need speculation. I just need to know what you need to figure it out."

* * *

#### 

Area 51 - August 19, 2005

Bill Lee opened the door to his new office in Area 51 and took a look inside. Aside from the weirdly sculpture-like ancient communications terminal sitting on the wooden table, the rest of the room was very plain, with off-white walls, floor, and ceiling. A set of 4 wooden stools and a computer (also on the table) completed the picture. Dr. Lee stepped inside and, after closing the door, placed the small case he was carrying on the table beside the ancient device. General Landry had somehow convinced the Tok'ra to part with a communicator and the Asgard to part with one of their stones, and Dr. Lee's only task right now was to try to activate this device.

He sat on one of the stools and opened the case, retrieving the asgard stone. _They were contemporaries of the Ancients, after all. Might as well try theirs first_.

Trying to press it into the slot, he immediately found that it was too large to fit. _Well, on to the tok'ra communicator_. Placing the asgard stone back in the case, he picked up the Tok'ra communicator and tried that one. It didn't fit either. Both were too big. _Of course it wouldn't be that simple…_ Well, maybe he could try taking the communications device apart? Not that there was any sort of screws or anything… Or he could ask Landry to call their allies back up and see if they knew anything about the thing… Not that they were likely to answer, given that both had had concerns in the past about giving the Tau'ri too much technology.

Well, since he was assigned to Area 51 now, he had plenty of time to work on this, provided he wasn't assigned other things to analyze, which, come to think of it, was probably pretty likely...

* * *

#### 

The SGC Briefing Room - September 9, 2005

General Landry walked into the room, and took his seat. Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c sat around the table. Jackson had Merlin's phase shifting device in front of him, which had just recently been involved in an incident where Jackson, Carter, and Mitchell had all vanished for a couple hours. Which is how they knew it was a phase shifting device.

General Landry opened the meeting by saying "Alright. Now that you're all visible again, what have you found out about that device?"

Daniel piped up. "Merlin was an Ancient who de-ascended and built this device, Arthur's Mantle," and he tapped Merlin's phase-shifting device for emphasis, "as a way to hide his research from the other ascended beings. Apparently, he was working on a way to kill every ascended being in an entire galaxy, and doing it out of phase kept the others from spying on him. According to his log, he completed the weapon, but there's no indication it was ever used, and we didn't find it in Avalon. Maybe this was intended as a backup in case he was stopped."

Landry's eyebrows rose in surprise. "He wanted to kill the other Ancients? Do his notes say why?"

Daniel frowned briefly. "They don't, no. We're not sure why he would want to. There really isn't enough information to go on in the book, although maybe the information is buried deeper in his logs and we just haven't gotten to that part yet."

"This weapon he was building wouldn't be the device Dr. Lee has at Area 51, would it?"

"Oh, no, absolutely not. It doesn't fit the descriptions in Merlin's logs."

"Alright, Doctor. Colonel Carter, do we know how either Arthur's Mantle or Merlin's weapon works now?"

"The specifications for both devices are in Arthur's Mantle's memory, sir, but recreating either or duplicating either one's effects is another matter entirely. We don't have the technology on Earth. Atlantis, however, might."

General Landry looked thoughtful. "Setting aside the weapon for the moment, because killing the ascended Ancients isn't remotely useful to us, do you think it might be possible for the Mantle to cloak a larger area, say, a starship, or Atlantis, or even an entire planet, and to make it affect more than just people?"

Carter nodded. "There is a configuration menu, sir, which would allow doing all of that, which is curious because if Merlin just intended to kill the ascended Ancients, he shouldn't have had any need to do that. That said, although we didn't use very much of the device's limited power supply, it's still very limited. If we tried to affect a starship the size of the Daedalus, or something even bigger, we'd likely drain its power supply. We would need to develop adapters to enable using external power sources with it."

General Landry continued looking thoughtful. "I see. Since it's been rather quiet here aside from Ba'al, I'm reassigning you both to Atlantis along with Arthur's Mantle. If you can make it do what you think it can do, or even duplicate it, it could provide a massive advantage against the Wraith. Daedalus is scheduled to return on October 10, and you'll ship out to Atlantis then. In the meantime, your orders are to develop a way to use Arthur's Mantle to protect Atlantis, and also our BC-304s. Once you're on Atlantis, see what you can do as far as finding a way to duplicate the device. Being able to phase the city out would be far better protection than having to choose between cloaking and activating shields, and it would be useful for our battlecruisers as well."

Mitchell chose that moment to pipe up, "Ah, sir. Is there any chance of all of SG-1 being reassigned? I did just get the band back together."

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but no. We need you here to hunt for the Ba'al clones. I'll be reassigning Lieutenants Hailey and Satterfield to SG-1 to bring you back up to a four person team. Dr Jackson and Colonel Carter are needed for this, but you and Teal'c are needed far more here than there, for the time being."

In his own mind, Mitchell was cursing his luck, but outwardly, he kept his expression neutral. "Yes, sir. I understand, sir."

"Dismissed. Colonel Mitchell, we'll discuss your next mission when your whole team is here."

* * *

#### 

Daedalus and the Atlantis Gate Room - October 29, 2005

Colonel Caldwell nodded to Jackson and Carter and then looked to Pat Meyers on his right. "Alright. Beam them and their stuff down, and then start on the supplies."

Jackson and Carter appeared in the center of the gate room along with several plastic suitcases. Sheppard came down the steps waving his hand. "Colonel, Doctor, welcome to Atlantis. Need a hand with that?"

Jackson was looking around like a kid in a candy store and barely heard him, but Carter smiled and said "absolutely, Colonel. Which way is the transporter?"

Sheppard gestured in the direction of the nearest transporter, and then grabbed two of the cases and headed off that way, with both Carter and Jackson following with two more of the cases each, Jackson seemingly having noticed he was about to be left behind.

"So," Sheppard inquired as they stepped into the transporter booth, "where're we headed to?"

Carter answered him while Jackson studied the map of Atlantis on the transporter booth's wall. "Quarters first, and then we need a lab with a connection to power."

After dropping off their personal suitcases in their rooms, Sheppard led them to an unused room suitable for research use, and Carter started unpacking. As she placed Arthur's Mantle on the table, Sheppard commented "That looks interesting. What is it?"

Carter replied "That's Arthur's Mantle. It pulls people and optionally things out of phase, making them invisible to others while also protecting them. We've already developed a power adapter to connect it with BC-304 power, but we're going to have to design another one for Atlantis's power system, since it's so different from our standard power system."

Sheppard hmm'd and gestured at an adapter connected to wall power. "Would the adapters we built to connect Earth technology to the Ancient power supply help?"

"This was designed to run on a similar power supply to what Atlantis provides. We'll use less power with a simple adapter. We do need a couple computers with a connection to the Ancient database, though. We have a lot of research to do."

Sheppard nodded. "I'll get someone to get that set up for you. I'm off to my regularly scheduled sparring session with Teyla. I'll see you around."

Daniel waved while continuing to unpack, and Sam said "See you later, Colonel."

* * *

#### 

Over the next year...

After getting their lab set up, Carter and Jackson built a power interface to connect Arthur's Mantle to Atlantis's power. It was then a simple matter to expand it to cover all of Atlantis. In November, Sheppard's team went missing, but turned out to have been kidnapped by none other than Aiden Ford. When they finally got back, having destroyed a couple Wraith hive ships by getting them to fight each other, Daedalus left to return to Earth. A short while later, the regularly scheduled dial-in to Earth was aborted at the last moment due to a suspected bomb. Though they eventually discovered Colonel Caldwell had been taken over by a Goa'uld, which Daedalus beamed out of him, Sam was frustrated because she hadn't been able to detect it. The Goa'uld had been clever enough to use the symbiote-masking drug to hide its presence from her. 

In December, McKay's puddle jumper crashed into the ocean and he nearly drowned. Uncomfortably, he told Sam after he got back that he had hallucinated her and she realized he had hallucinated her taking her clothes off. Later that month, Sheppard's team discovered a buried Ancient city, overthrew a monarchy, and returned with a bunch of drones and puddle jumpers.

By January 2006, Sam and Daniel were growing frustrated. They had yet to locate any manufacturing capability at all which could be fed the plans from Arthur's Mantle in order to replicate it. The technology behind the device was kiron-based, and they simply didn't know how to manufacture kiron-based technology. There were physics treatises on kirons and everything else in the Ancient database, and that was what Sam turned to studying, but even if she mastered the physics, that wouldn't necessarily enable her to construct kiron-based technology. It'd be like trying to build a modern computer chip with 14th century smithing tools. The Ancients must have had manufacturing capabilities, but finding it - Daniel's task - was proving to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In between studying Ancient physics, Sam worked with Rodney McKay on the design and macros for the McKay-Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge, which aside from Rodney's usual self-centeredness, seemed a pleasant diversion by July, when they started on the project.


	2. McKay and Mrs. Miller

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things continue to diverge from the prime universe.

* * *

#### 

The SGC - August 1, 2006

General Hank Landry walked into the SGC conference room and took his seat. In front of him were the current members of SG-1, Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Teal'c of Chulak, Captain Jennifer Hailey, and First Lieutenant Grace Satterfield, along with Colonel Paul Emerson, commanding officer of the Odyssey.

General Landry began. "Good morning. I'm going to cut to the chase here: SG-1 and the Odyssey are being reassigned to Atlantis. SG-1, you leave on Odyssey on the 4th. With Ba'al gone, the IOA no longer sees any reason to keep you all here, and I concur. Your first mission will be to collect and deploy Stargates in Pegasus for Doctor McKay and Colonel Carter's planned intergalactic gate bridge, so that we can send supplies and if necessary reinforcements. Afterwards, you'll be under Dr. Weir's command, same as everyone else on Atlantis. Any questions?"

"Sir," asked Mitchell, "who will be setting up this side of the gate bridge?"

"SG-20 and the Korolev will handle that, Colonel. They'll also be coordinating construction of the Midway Station."

* * *

#### 

Odyssey - In the void between galaxies - Aug 12, 2006

Looking out the window on the bridge as a Stargate appeared in space with a flash of light, Colonel Mitchell commented "and that's another one in place."

"Indeed," replied Teal'c, as Colonel Emerson waved his hand forward and the ship jumped back into hyperspace.

"3 more and we'll be on our way to Atlantis," commented Lieutenant Satterfield.

"Just a matter of sitting around and waiting now," said Mitchell. _It might've broken up the monotony_ , he thought, _if we had moved them one at a time, instead of picking them all up, attaching forwarding computers and thrusters, and only then placing them all_.

* * *

#### 

Odyssey - On the edge of the Pegasus galaxy - August 18, 2006

Colonel Emerson walked over to SG-1's table in the mess hall, carrying a tray with several slices of pizza on it. The members of SG-1 started to stand, but he waved them back down. "Mind if I join you?" he asked.

Colonel Mitchell gestured to a chair with the slice of pizza in his hand. "Not a problem, sir."

Emerson took a seat, putting down his tray. "I have good news from Atlantis: Dr. Beckett just contacted us to let us know that Dr. Weir has finally come out of her coma. It turns out the problem was replicator nanites."

"Did they figure out where the nanites came from?" asked Satterfield.

Colonel Emerson nodded. "According to Dr. Beckett and Dr. McKay, they came from the Replicator that McKay tried to reprogram last week, which went hostile and grabbed Dr. Weir after the other Replicators reset its base code."

Satterfield pulled an American ten dollar bill out of her new SGA jacket pocket, and slid it over to Teal'c. He tipped his head in acknowledgement and smiled as he retrieved it.

Hailey swallowed a bite of pizza. "The Ida galaxy replicators couldn't infect someone with self-replicating nanites. How'd you guess these ones could, Teal'c?"

Teal'c replied, "I merely did not assume they were identical in limitations."

Satterfield commented "So, 4 days to Atlantis, right? Now that all the gates on this end are in place."

Emerson nodded. "Current orders are to protect Atlantis once we get there, not to go after the Replicators. I have an idea the IOA wants to avoid antagonizing the Replicators at the moment, but it sounds like they're already pretty obsessed with taking the city away from us."

Mitchell said "The IOA may want us to run surveillance, to find out what the Replicators are up to."

Emerson replied "They've nearly finished constructing the Apollo, and I've been told they're leaning towards giving that mission to them."

* * *

#### 

Atlantis - August 22, 2006

With a burst of light, Mitchell, Teal'c, Hailey, and Satterfield beamed into the Atlantis gate room. Dr. Weir walked down the stairs from the control room. "Welcome to Atlantis," she said, smiling.

"Thanks," replied Colonel Mitchell, "and wow, this place is amazing."

"It truly is," said Dr. Weir. "Every piece of Ancient architecture we've found in Pegasus has looked like this, which is a remarkable departure from their architecture in the Milky Way."

"Indeed," commented Teal'c, who had seen more of that architecture in the Milky Way than anyone else now on SG-1.

"If you'd like to see your quarters," said Dr. Weir, "I've had Odyssey beam your belongings into them, and I can have someone show you where they are."

Colonel Mitchell nodded, "That'd be good, thanks, Doctor."

Dr. Weir turned and looked back up at the control room, where Major Lorne was watching from the railing. "Major, could you show SG-1 to their quarters?"

"Certainly, Doctor," he replied, walking down the stairs.

* * *

#### 

Atlantis's Medbay

Jennifer Keller turned the last corner towards Medbay and heard Carson Beckett say "Well, we're all done here. I'll have someone look over your scans in detail later but for now you all appear to be in excellent health. Off you go!"

Keller walked up to the doorway and saw Teal'c - she had never met him, but he was famous in the Stargate program - along with Carson and three others she didn't recognize. "Oh, hi!" she said, "Did you just arrive with Odyssey?"

"Indeed," replied Teal'c.

"We've just been transferred to Atlantis." said the one other man. "Colonel Cameron Mitchell. This is my team, Teal'c, Captain Jennifer Hailey, and Lieutenant Grace Satterfield." Teal'c inclined his head in Keller's direction when his name was spoken.

"Doctor Jennifer Keller," replied Keller, "Chief Medical Officer of the Daedalus. I was just coming to bug Carson here because I still haven't received a copy of the data he gathered on the Replicator nanites."

"Sorry, love. I'll get that to you in just a jiffy. You'll have to get at Rodney for his half of the report, though." He turned to a laptop, and Keller looked back at SG-1.

"Farewell," intoned Teal'c, as he bowed his head and then turned to leave. 

Colonel Mitchell nodded to Dr. Keller and said "Have a good night, doc."

Keller glanced at the nearest clock. It was only noon. _Well, Odyssey was probably running on SGC time instead of Atlantis time._

Keller looked at Satterfield and Hailey, who were still standing there. Satterfield appeared to be looking at Beckett's ass, while Hailey was looking at Keller. "So," wondered Keller out loud, "are you two heading off to sleep too?"

Hailey shook her head. "I'm going to try to stay up until evening here." Satterfield looked back and said "I'm doing the same."

Beckett tapped a couple keys and looked over at Jennifer. "Alright, love, I've sent it to your inbox on Daedalus."

"Thanks, Doc." Keller looked back at Hailey and said "Well, I'd better go see Dr. McKay about the rest of the report. It was nice meeting you folks."

Hailey smiled and said "I'll see you around." Satterfield nodded.

"See you later, Carson," said Keller, before heading out.

* * *

#### 

Atlantis - September 6, 2006

Rodney McKay looked at the new and improved Project Arcturus, built to draw power from and release exotic particles into other universes instead of their own, and then looked over at his sister, Jeanie Miller, and at Jennifer Hailey, both of whom had contributed to the project. "Alright, I think we're ready to test it."

"Dr. McKay," asked Hailey, "we could use this to visit another universe, too, couldn't we?"

McKay looked thoughtful. "Hm. Yes, if we opened the matter bridge without activating Arcturus."

Jeanie got an excited look on her face. "We could check for life on the other side, make sure it's uninhabited!"

McKay looked a little annoyed. "It'll use precious Zed PM power! And there won't be anyone on the other side, anyways!"

Hailey replied, a little heatedly, "We don't know that for sure, though. I think it's worth the power to make sure we don't accidentally wipe out another Atlantis expedition." _Shouldn't McKay care that there might be people on the other side? Or is he just that certain that he's right?_

Jeanie said "I agree with her, Mer. Plus, if it is uninhabited, it won't matter because we'll have an infinite energy source. We should do this."

McKay looked at them both and saw how determined they were. He wasn't going to win this argument, and really, what would it hurt? It would barely use any power. "Alright, fine."

Tapping his headset to activate the mic, Rodney said "Elizabeth, we're ready to proceed, but we want to test the matter bridge without Arcturus first to make sure the universe it connects to is uninhabited."

Elizabeth's voice came back over the headset, "You may proceed. I'll be down in a minute."

McKay flipped a switch on the panel before him. "Activating matter bridge."

A glow suffused the chamber and then faded out, revealing instead what seemed to be a spherical window into another universe.

"Well, that's not good," commented Hailey. "There are stars. And... I'm reading planets... Lantea is there. And I'm picking up communications on our comm frequency. We've just connected to another universe like this one."

"Damn," muttered McKay. "Okay, save the coordinates of this universe, and let's try another random one."

Elizabeth Weir stepped into the room as Hailey randomized the destination. The stars visible in the chamber did not change.

Jeanie frowned. "It still has stars. Hello, Dr. Weir." Hailey and McKay greeted her as well.

"What do we have so far," asked Dr. Weir. Looking at the reaction chamber, she commented "Stars?"

"This is the second universe we've connected to," said Hailey, "Both have had stars, planets, Lantea, and Atlantis."

McKay remarked "We should keep looking. Surely it must be able to connect to universes that have no stars or life?"

"Maybe they're too different for it to connect, or we're mainly reaching ones near us?" wondered Jeanie out loud.

"How much power is this using?" asked Weir.

"0.1% per universe we connect to," reported McKay.

"Alright," said Dr Weir, "check some more, but don't use more than 1% of the zpm. If they're all inhabited, it probably isn't worth continuing to drain zpm power, until and unless you can come up with a better way to target uninhabited universes."

McKay nodded and looked at Hailey. She pressed a button, connecting to another universe. The stars remained the same. 8 universes later, McKay sighed quietly, and said "We've used about 1% of the ZPM. Shutting down. Alright. If power generation isn't in the cards for now, what about using it to travel to other universes?"

Dr Weir nods, "Look into that. If we can take a puddle jumper or even an entire battlecruiser into another universe, it could be very useful." Looking over at Jeanie, she smiled. "Thank you for your assistance on this project. We can take you home whenever you're ready."

"Thank you, Elizabeth. It was a good challenge. Hey, Mer, you'll be sure to write, yeah?"

Rodney nodded. "I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about. Let's get something to eat before you go."


	3. Rodney McKay Knows a Thing or Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of Tao of Rodney take place, but there are some differences from how things went in the prime reality.

* * *

#### 

Between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies - October to November 2006

On Oct 8, 2006, the McKay-Carter intergalactic gate bridge was brought online and tested, for a certain definition of online: it was basically a skeleton with two gates and no gravity.

A month later, the ancient warship Tria flew past Midway station at a near-C velocity without even noticing the station. Had they been scanned by FTL sensors, they'd certainly have noticed that, but Midway's long-range FTL sensors had yet to be installed, and there hadn't been any Tau'ri ships with long-range sensors in the area since the gates were tested a month earlier.

* * *

#### 

Atlantis - November 20, 2006

"Dr. Weir to the control room." McKay's voice came through Elizabeth's headset while she was doing paperwork (if playing solitaire could be considered doing paperwork) on her laptop in her office. 

Standing up and closing the lid of her laptop, she walked out into the control room. "What is it, Rodney?"

"We're picking up a ship on long-range sensors. It appears to be Ancient."

"So, likely Replicators, then. How far out is it?"

"About an hour. It's moving pretty fast."

"Alright, contact Colonels Caldwell and Emerson. Let them know we have a visitor coming and it may be time to try out Carter and Hailey's anti-ship ARG."

McKay nodded. "Will do."

"And raise the shield before they get here," added Elizabeth.

About an hour later, an Aurora-class warship dropped out of hyperspace above Lantea and immediately dove straight for the city, ignoring the shields.

Back in the Atlantis control room, McKay sat in front of a laptop, reading from the screen. Weir stood a short distance away.

"They're launching drones. Odyssey is firing their ARG," narrated McKay. A few seconds passed. "The drones have powered down. Colonel Emerson reports the enemy ship is dead in the water and he and Colonel Caldwell are sending jumpers to board and examine it."

"Excellent," replied Dr. Weir.

John Sheppard, who had been standing silently to the side, commented "It sure was nice of the Replicators to send us a free ship. Hey, do you suppose they'll send any more?"

"I suppose you've already got a name picked out, Colonel?" asked Elizabeth.

Sheppard replied, "Yeah. Artemis, after the ancient Roman short sword."

* * *

#### 

Atlantis - December 12, 2006

_Yesterday_ , thought Rodney McKay, _was a hectic day. I got zapped by an ancient machine, gained superpowers, got significantly smarter, learned I will die if I don't ascend, accidentally nearly killed Zelenka but brought him back with my new healing powers, and invented a new type of math and a way to increase the shield power on the BC-304s_. Putting aside his mental catalog of everything that had happened, McKay walked into the mess hall and made a beeline for the food. After piling a ton of it on a tray, he spotted Samantha Carter and made his way over to where she was seated. 

Sitting down across from her, he exclaimed, while waving his hands around excitedly, "Hey, Sam! I was just reading about kiron based technology in the Ancient database, and it all makes sense to me now!"

Sam replied "Hey, that's great! That could be a big help with reproducing Arthur's Mantle. And if you can find a way to explain what you've learned, or maybe put it in book form…"

"Oh, it's far too complicated to explain, I'd need to write multiple books on math and physics, it'd take years to learn and it still might be too difficult to grasp..."

Sam grimaced, but Rodney didn't seem to notice, and he continued speaking. "But not to worry, I've already designed a phasing cloak based on Arthur's Mantle, which we can plug into our ships and into Atlantis, and I've prepared instructions to build a fabricator to create it, and a program for said fabricator. By the way, I haven't found any references to any kind of general fabricator in the ancient database."

"The Ancients used specialized fabricators instead?" wondered Sam.

"Yeah. Different ones for their uniforms, guns, drones, puddle jumpers, stargates, and so on. It looks like the components tended to vary somewhat between the fabricators, as well as the programming of course, and they varied in size, and for the most part they were all kept in places other than Atlantis. They could have just designed a general fabricator and I'm not really sure why they didn't. Anyways, I've uploaded everything I did to the database, and sent you links to it."

"Alright, let me take a look at what you've got, and hopefully we can get something set up. Thanks, McKay."

"Mmhmm. Oh, Hailey gave me an idea for a power generation system - pulling power from subspace, sort of like ZPMs, which use an artificially created layer of it, but without needing to create the layer."

Sam frowned, "Will that be safe, or could we run into the same problem as with Arcturus?"

"I'll know once I model the math and run a simulation. It shouldn't take long to find out."

"While you were researching all this, did you happen to find any plans for manufacturing or recharging ZPMs?"

"No. It's odd. The Ancients don't seem to have ever put any plans for making ZPMs - or recharging them - into their database. And yet the Replicators seem to know how to make them? Maybe the Ancients did have plans in the database but removed them later. In any case, I don't know how to make new ZPMs still."

"Maybe to keep the Wraith from acquiring the ability to make or recharge ZPMs," replied Sam.

"Yeah," nodded Rodney, "that would make sense."

"Alright, thanks and good luck, McKay." Sam stood up, having finished her meal just before Rodney arrived, and turned to dispose of her tray and head out.

Rodney nodded and started eating with one hand while rapidly typing on a tablet with the other. 

* * *

#### 

Much later, after McKay has had his DNA restored…

"Damnit, Elizabeth," exclaimed McKay, walking into Dr. Weir's office, "half of this work I did on the subspace capacitor makes no sense to me now. And I didn't finish it! I need to go back in the machine."

"Absolutely not!" she exclaimed. "You were incredibly lucky the first time! You could've been turned into pool of protoplasm!"

McKay paled. "Maybe we can fix the machine so that can't happen?"

"No, Rodney. You'll just have to work within your normal capabilities. Maybe working in a group would help. More eyes, and all that."

Rodney sighed, "Alright, fine. Hopefully we don't need this anytime soon."

"Hopefully we won't. We have the phasing cloak design. Sam's already got the fabricator all set up for it. As soon as the SGC starts sending us shipments of refined naquadah and trinium through the gate bridge, we can start making and installing them."

"That's good news, at least. But this is going to bug me until I understand what I was doing and get it all working!" McKay walked back out of Dr. Weir's office, grumbling to himself.


	4. Red Flags

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is mainly set during SG:Atlantis s03e17 Sunday. I've placed it on the date at which the episode aired, Monday, January 15, 2007. The wiki says it happened on a Sunday, but things in Stargate's alternate realities don't necessarily happen on the exact same days, so...

* * *

#### 

Atlantis - December 29, 2006 to January 15, 2007

On December 29, 2006, Earth's first shipment of naquadah and trinium was delivered to Atlantis through the gate bridge. It took about a week to manufacture and install the first phasing cloak in Daedalus, and while that was taking place, another team upgraded Artemis, their new Ancient warship, with Asgard beaming technology. 

A second shipment arrived on January 8, and was used to upgrade Odyssey with a phasing cloak.

A third shipment arrived on the morning of January 15, Dr. Heightmeyer's and Dr. Weir's Atlantis-wide mandatory rest day.

* * *

#### 

Atlantis, Fabricator room, T-3 hours - Monday, January 15, 2007

Teal'c and Samantha Carter pushed the two anti-grav sleds into the fabricator room, and maneuvered them over to the phasing cloak fabricator itself. The fabricator looked like a rectangular box up on legs that left enough room for them to slide both carts in underneath it. Once the carts were locked in place, Carter pressed the feed button on the side of the fabricator, and with a soft hum, a bar from each cart floated up and disappeared into the fabricator. Sam thought about how neither she nor anyone else in the SGC or Atlantis had seen a tractor beam before, and yet Rodney had invented a miniature one purely to allow the fabricator to automatically load the SGC's standardized (and very heavy) ingots unassisted.

Once the fabricator was working on its own, Sam bid Teal'c farewell and thanked him for his help, and stepped out of the fabricator room to her office. The door locked behind her. To get in again later, she would have to swipe her ID badge, do a retinal scan, and key in a PIN code. The room also had a transport blocker to keep anyone from beaming in or out. The security on the room was far beyond anything in the rest of the base, but at the moment there were no guards here but her. Sitting down at her desk with her laptop, Sam pulled up the schematics for _Artemis_. As she began to plan the alterations necessary to integrate the phasing cloak, she heard the outer door slide open, followed by footsteps and a chipper "Hi."

"I'm a little busy at the moment," replied Sam, looking up. There was a brown-haired, bearded man standing just inside the doorway. Sam glanced back at her laptop and pressed the lock button to secure it, just in case.

"What are you, uh, what are you doing here?" asked the man in the doorway.

Sam tried to place his face, but couldn't recall seeing him before. While she was a little suspicious that he had showed up while the fabricator was working and she was the only one here, he wasn't really acting like a spy. Still, it couldn't hurt to be cautious. Not wanting to give away any information he wasn't supposed to have, she replied vaguely, "Working on a schedule."

"Surely it could wait a day?" asked her unwelcome visitor.

Sam gave him a look. "I'm afraid it's time critical. Why are you here?"

"I was thinking about grabbing some food. Care to join?"

"I can't. I already told-"

"You're not capable of having lunch?" he asked.

Inside Sam's head, little red flags went up. Not the ones for possible spies, mind you. The ones reserved for people showing signs that they might be abusive. "And who is asking?"

"Mike. Mike Branton."

"Sorry, Mike, I need to concentrate on this and get it done before I can go eat."

"So, how about we get lunch then, after you finish? Or dinner, whichever?"

Sam crossed her arms. "Look, Mike. I'm not looking to date anyone right now."

"Oh, you think… No, no, no, this isn't a date. This is- this is lunch. Or dinner. This is the mandatory refueling of our bodies. This is you know, putting food in your mouth and chewing it, and-"

Sam interrupted him. "I'd prefer to eat alone."

  
He continued on, ignoring her. "\- and having something more engaging than a wall sitting across-"

He had just talked over her, completely ignoring what she had said, and Sam was feeling increasingly frustrated and starting to get angry. She had tried to say no nicely, several times. Clearly that wasn't going to work. Raising her voice, she interrupted Mike's interruption. "I already told you that I'm not interested, in three different ways, but you just keep barreling on!"

"Was that three? I think it was more like two. Are you su-"

"Let me be clear: Get. Out."

Mike raised his hands in mock surrender, and backed out the door. "Okay! Okay!"

Sam sighed and unlocked her laptop. She was definitely going to have a talk with Dr. Weir about that guy.

* * *

#### 

Daniel's lab, T-2 hours

Carson walked in and spotted Daniel reading something at a laptop. "Hey, Daniel."

"Oh hey, Carson. What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you'd like to go fishing."

"I thought you were going with Rodney?"

"Ach, he cancelled to spend time with Katie. So I've been looking for someone else who might want to go."

"Sure, I'd love to. I haven't had a chance since I got to Pegasus." Daniel signed out of the laptop and closed the lid, and together they headed off to the jumper bay.

* * *

#### 

Daedalus, in orbit of Lantea, T-15 minutes

Jennifer Keller stood together with Jennifer Hailey, looking out a window at Lantea. Keller had invited Hailey up to Daedalus for a tour, and after seeing most of the ship, they had finally arrived here. Keller smiled at Hailey. "This is one of my favorite places on the whole ship, especially when we're parked here in orbit."

Hailey smiled back. "Lantea looks so beautiful from up here. Also from down there, but especially from up here. Seeing it from space never gets old, does it?"

"It truly doesn't. I love to come here and look out at it." replied Keller. After a few minutes of looking out at the planet, Keller asked "It's just about lunch time. Are you getting hungry?"

  
Hailey smiled. "Yeah, now that you mention it. Let's go eat."

"See, there's a reason I hadn't shown you the cafeteria yet," Keller smiled. "It's right this way," she gestured.

They were partway through their meal when Colonel Caldwell put the ship on alert and announced that there had been an explosion on Atlantis.

* * *

#### 

T+30 minutes

"Doctor, the man you are working on right now has been infected with an explosive tumor," said McKay over the medbay intercom. "We think it's what killed Hewston and caused the explosion."

  
"Explosive tumor? That's not-" exclaimed a startled Dr. Cole into her headset, which had just been taped to her surgical hat and mask moments before.

"It is possible, Doctor. Look, I need you to get the scanner on him, and then relay the results up to Odyssey."

"On it," she said. She and Marie both moved towards the scanner, and they maneuvered it into place. "Send it up, would you, Marie, once it's done? I need to get to operating."

Once the scan completed, Marie tapped at a wall-mounted computer to transmit the results to Odyssey, while Dr. Cole performed surgery to stabilize their patient, ignoring the tumor. "Odyssey," said Marie, "we're sending you a scan of Dr. James Watson, with the location of an explosive tumor highlighted. We need you to lock onto his subcutaneous tracker and use the data from the scan to beam the tumor into space."

A couple minutes later, the white light and hum characteristic of Asgard beaming technology rose from Dr. Watson's abdomen, and sped up and through the ceiling. Marie checked the scanner. "Scan confirms the tumor is gone," she reported.

"That's a relief," said Dr. Cole. "Okay. I've stopped the bleeding. And my head is pounding. Can you take over from here, Marie? Get him cleaned up and watch his vitals?"

"Sure, not a problem, Doctor."

McKay spoke through the intercom again, "I'll contact Dr. Keller on Daedalus and see if she can beam down and take over so you can get some rest."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewrote a bunch of this over the past few days because I wasn't happy with what I had written. There's still stuff that bugs me, but if I kept editing everything until I felt happy with it, it'd take me years to post anything.
> 
> So, the last time I watched Sunday, Mike Branton popped up a bunch of red flags in my head, and I was pretty frustrated by how he was able to cajole Dr. Weir into going on a date with him and so on. So I figured I'd have him try to pick up Sam instead, because I feel like she'd react very differently from how Dr. Weir did.


End file.
